BUBBLEGUM ALBUMS

(in the strictly Long-playing, Long-lasting, but pretty well long out-of-print category)

JONATHAN KING  Bubble Rock Is Here To Stay  (U.K. Records, 1972)

Including witfully-wadded takes on anything and everything from “Satisfaction” and “Mr. Tambourine Man” to “Rock Around The Clock” and beyond, this truly is the world’s tartiest collection of, as Mr. King describes it himself, “fabulous old wines in beautiful new bottles.”

Various Artistes  The Fabulous Bubblegum Years  (Kory Records, 1976)

Fifteen (“count ‘em!”) of K&K’s gooiest ‘n’ gummiest of all, expertly sequenced and lovingly packaged by the good folks at — who? — Kory.  This, along with that first Ramone album, surely made 1976 the year of Bubblegum’s last great (original) gasp.

BUTTERSCOTT  Great Scott  (Grapefruit Records, 1998)

The proudly self-confessed Bubblegum Man of Boston herein gathers together an hour of his greatest three-chord, four-track creations and offers them boldly to a world which, long ago it seems, seems to have all but forgotten the simple joys in rhyming “yummy” with “tummy.”

CANDYPANTS  Candypants  (Sympathy For The Record Industry, 2000)

What do you get when you toss together a wad of Los Angeles’ greatest unsung musicians to create a clutch of tunes that veer wildly between pop-a-billy sass, Ronettes mascara-raunch, and the attraction(s) that was very early Elvis Costello?  Top it all with the provocatively crayola-tones of the one and only Lisa Jenio and you honestly have one of the gummily-greatest creations this side of Josie and her Puddytats.  Brings ALL new meanings to the expression “pony up” (for starters).